“Shell middens and other anthropogenic soils as global stratigraphic signatures of the Anthropocene”

CITATION:
Jon M. Erlandson. 2013. Anthropocene, 4, pp. 24-32.
ON-LINE AVAILABILITY:
ABSTRACT:
Evidence for aquatic foraging, fishing, and scavenging by hominins dates back at least two million years, but aquatic resource use intensified with Continue reading →

Pitfalls and potentials in dating the onset of the Anthropocene

Just when (and how) did humans begin influencing the planetary system? Recent posts on this blog – notably those by Zev and Stephen on creation myths, Noah’s on cosmopolitanism, and David’s on Holocene climate – have spurred me to think about how delimiting a chronological date on the start of the Anthropocene influences how we think about habitability. Here I present some musings.

As initially conceived by non-archaeologists, the start of the Anthropocene was placed Continue reading →